1. I've started to get back into recording a little bit; I don't necessarily have any new song ideas, but I have some old songs that need a proper recording, and now that I've solved my keyboard problem, it's a bit less frustrating than it used to be. Here's what gets me, though: I was getting endlessly frustrated a while back because I wanted to start putting my Reason loops into ProTools so I could put vocals and other instruments on top of them, as well as simply being able to use Reason's synth sounds, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to work. And yet tonight, just now, I was futzing around and I suddenly had an idea as to how it could work, and, lo and behold, it worked. I just think it's funny that a year ago, when I was recording daily and really familiar with the software, I couldn't figure out how to solve this problem; but now, now that I've had extended time away from the software and I'm still rusty, I'm able to see all the things I couldn't see before.

2. We saw "August: Osage County" on Saturday and I've been thinking about it ever since we got home; it was absolutely fantastic, one of the best plays I've ever seen, if not the best. The acting was phenomenal, from top to bottom - it's a large cast, too, which is all the more impressive, and only 2 members of the cast are from last year's Tony-winning run. Here's how much I loved it: it made me want to start acting again. I'm thinking about buying the script tomorrow when I'm back at work; there's a part of me that wishes I was still at NYU and could do scenes from it in class. My mom had already seen it and described it thusly: It's not a comedy, even though it's very, very funny. It's coming to London in November, at the National Theatre of all places, and Kath and I (having been to the National earlier this year) were almost thinking about flying over and trying to get tickets. I don't know if it's still running in Chicago (it's a Steppenwolf production), but if you're in NYC, you absolutely must go and see it.